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Monday, August 1, 2011

Over the Edge by Brandilyn Collins

Janessa's life seems perfect. Her husband is a well-known researcher and professor. His work affords her and her daughter a perfect life--wealth, beautiful home, the best school. When Janessa gets sick, she and her husband assume it's a bad case of the flu. Instead, it is her worse nightmare. A man calls and informs Janessa that he has infected with her with Lyme disease. To save her daughter from becoming infected, Janessa must convince her husband, who believes chronic Lyme disease doesn't exist, to retract his research findings. Can Janessa save her daughter when her own husband doesn't believe her?

My sister read this book before me and didn't enjoy it, so to be honest, I wasn't expecting much. While the book is not as fast-paced as most of Brandilyn Collins' books (I've read all of them), it is interesting and a good read. Most of Collins' books focus on the action and the suspense. This book spends more time on character development. At the beginning of the book, Janessa is a Stepford wife, making sure the dinner is prepared at a certain time, having the home spotless, making sure she was not a minute late to pick up her daughter. When her illness leaves her so sick she cannot get out of bed, she has to become a fighter just to move. When no one believes she has Lyme, she has to fight to get answers. When her husband questions her ability to care for her daughter, she has to fight to provide for her child. By the end of the book, Janessa is a force to be reckoned with. This development of character is the best I've seen in a Collins' book.

The second thing I enjoyed about the book was the realistic portrayal of the disease and the medical field. While most doctors care about their patients, the patient must be his or her own advocate, pushing to receive the best care possible, insisting the doctors find out the answers. I knew very little about Lyme disease when I picked up this book, but I now feel for those who suffer from this disease. I hope this book will help educate people. I felt the information was presented in a straight-forward manner and was not too preachy. There were a few parts where the "information" slowed down the drama, but it wasn't enough for me to stop reading.